Children of the River (Laurel-Leaf Contemporary Fiction) Review

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(More customer reviews)Not every person in the world can say that they have gone through the crisis of moving to a new country, leaving behind their family, and trying to keep a baby no older then a few days old alive. Sundara is one who can. Children of the River is a story that looks into the lives of Cambodians trying to stay alive while a group of Communists invade and try to communize the country of Cambodia.
The setting takes place mostly in Willamette Grove, Oregon but starts out in Cambodia during the attack of the Khmer Rouge (the group of communists). The main character, Sundara, who is only thirteen at the time of the attacks, is forced to leave her family and go to America with her aunt and uncle. In America, Sundara learns and tries to adapt to the customs of the Americans but has a hard time fitting in. After being in America for a while, Sundara meets an American football player who she comes to like. She knows though that she cannot be seen with him or be with him because of the Cambodian tradition, which do not allow any relationships between any non Khmer boy and that all marriages are arranged. But, she slowly begins to give way to the customs and she finds herself and Jonathan (the white American football player) in love. Fighting traditions and family, Sundara struggles to choose between Jonathan and her Cambodian ways.
After reading this book I could not help but notice one extremely well inscribed theme: "Never judge a person by looking at them." I have never read a book that has ever used this theme so profoundly. In most ways it jumped out at me, which made me realize how the society in America is centered on this one idiom. This book challenges its readers to "see not only with their eyes but in other ways as well." An extremely well written book by Linda Crew could only deserve my utmost recommendations for a young adult audience, mainly to open their eyes to the world that we live in outside of their city and country boundaries.


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